New Study Shows Attractive People Have Shorter Relationships

Research found a correlation between facial attractiveness and length of relationships.

As if finding a partner wasn’t difficult already, a new study shows that attractive people tend to have shorter relationships.

Christine Ma-Kellams and her team at Harvard University asked two women to judge the attractiveness of 238 men based on their high school photos.

Researchers then tracked down the men 30 years later and recorded their marriage and divorce data. Men who were rated as more ‘facially attractive’ in their high school photos by the raters were more likely to be divorced or to have shorter marriages.

The pattern also applied to celebrities. The same group of women who rated the high school students, rated the attractiveness of some of the most powerful celebrities. Attractive celebrities were also reported to have shorter relationships and more divorces.

Correlation, however, doesn’t always mean causation. There may be other factors that contribute to the short half-lives of the relationships of attractive people that haven’t been accounted for.